Just look at what you missed!

Okay, you can't really look. But mounting a production takes time, effort, skill, and well, love. That so many gave so much to make each production happen, we want to use this space to again thank them, and perhaps tells a fun anecdote or two (and photos -- you know there will be photos).

Plutus (Profit), Aristophanes

Romeo & Juliet

We have a particular mission: to imbue time-proven tales with fresh views, decidedly focused around casting. In the course of closing last season's Shakespeare production, and the year prior, the commitment of our cast, and their skill, proved inspiring.

We decided to eliminate the guesswork and build a production around known talent. That brings us to Sam Shepard, and True West. It's been a good while since there was a major staging of this production in the city -- perhaps because of the extraordinary quality of most recent production. But it seemed like a good time -- and our potential casting made it all the more interesting. True West carries themes of the struggle of authenticity -- the 'real' versus the appropriated, rising and falling fortunes, at the personal level and culturally at large. Two brothers struggling with their envy about the presumed rewards of their respective paths, and their own sense of failing resulting from striking the opposite tack.

We decided quite specifically on True West because of our experience with Alvin Chan, an Asian-American of Hawaiian descent, who was part of our production of Much Ado About Nothing. Quite literally thrilled by his talent and versatility, we ticked off some of our favorites in hopes of finding something we wanted to see that would mesh with the talent we saw. The themes of the 'authentic' American experience resonated with his personal path and very much with the issues we want to foreground as a result of our mission.

Reviews

Off Off Online:At the same time, it's a scrupulously faithful production of a terrific script: a True West defined by conservatism and adventurousness. Click here to read the full review.

Local Theatre NY:While everyone else is doing Annie and the millionth production of Arsenic and Old Lace, this group is pushing the boundaries not only in terms of play selection, but also space and casting. It is fresh and it is wonderful.. Click here to read the full review.

Much Ado About Nothing (Summer 2008)

Though inclement weather curtailed our schedule towards the end, we were pleased to be able to bring Shakespeare to four of the five boroughs (sorry, Staten Island, we are trying, really) in less than a month. With an agile, talented and committed ensemble cast, we tromped from Pehlam Park to Fort Greene (rain stopped us from the farthest reach, a park out in Queens we still don't think exists, but we were game for trying), with crowds larger and more diverse than last year.

We didn't set out with a plan to bring Shakespeare and flaming cars to parks throughout the city. Some times you just get, um, lucky, and New York reminds you that it still can be a wild and wooly place. Our plan was simple: in this city Shakespeare in the Park usually means just one park. And in a city with literally dozens, in varied and vibrant communities, we thought it was fair and fun to reclaim the idea of 'in the park' for all parks. Acknowledging another tradition in theatre, we spend October as roving troubadours, ranging from the highest point in Manhattan, to the, um, fieryest part of Queens. Thanks to the poor (but well insured, we hope) maintenance skills of that gentleman in Astoria, we braved all the elements before it was done.

Though a 'fiery conclusion' to our performance schedule makes for a witty anecdote, it shouldn't obscure the significance of our site selection and the success we found. In keeping with our mission, we wanted to pick sites that were part of established communities that aren't a popular desitination of cultural groups. That's not to say there isn't tremendous culture in these communinites, but our particular aspiration to cross-pollinate works best when we seek out the communities of interest, instead of trying to cajole them into coming to us. Plus, you don't have get in line at 6AM to get tickets.